Seoul National University receives top ratings for three fields in inaugural JoongAng subject rankings
Published: 25 Nov. 2025, 16:23
Updated: 26 Nov. 2025, 13:43
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- LEE TAE-HEE
- [email protected]
![Seoul National University's main gate in Gwanak District, southern Seoul [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/11/26/d9adcedd-d46e-4f00-86f1-7876a1929a6d.jpg)
Seoul National University's main gate in Gwanak District, southern Seoul [NEWS1]
Seoul National University (SNU) secured the top rating of “exceptional” in three academic fields — humanities, social sciences and business and economics — in The JoongAng University Rankings by Subject 2025 announced by the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday.
To mark its 60th anniversary, the JoongAng Ilbo introduced the The JoongAng University Rankings by Subject for the first time. The rankings compare universities' performances in each academic discipline.
Sungkyunkwan University and the Pohang University of Science and Technology (Postech) both earned “exceptional” ratings in four engineering and two natural sciences fields.
Yonsei University's Sinchon Campus and Hanyang University's Seoul Campus achieved the top “exceptional” rating in four engineering fields. Korea University's Seoul Campus, KAIST and Inha University also demonstrated competitiveness in multiple fields.
Subject rankings announced for first time
To create the rankings, nine disciplines were selected — humanities; social sciences; business and economics; electronics and computer engineering; materials and chemical engineering; mechanical and mobility engineering; construction and systems engineering; mathematics and physics; and life sciences and chemistry — based on their academic and industrial importance and connection to research and education, as determined by an expert advisory committee.
Unlike The JoongAng University Rankings, the subject rankings focus on the research and educational outcomes of each academic discipline rather than considering factors such as university reputation or financial stability. Indicators and weightings are tailored to each academic discipline.
Universities in the top 10 percent of each academic discipline are given the “exceptional” rating and those in the top 30 percent are given the “excellent” rating. Academic fields such as medicine, law, arts and physical education were excluded from the subject rankings.
“The JoongAng University Rankings by Subject 2025 shows each university’s strength through the quality of research and education in various academic fields," said Kim Ee-gyeong, Chung-Ang University's graduate school dean and a member of the ranking's social science advisory committee. "The subject rankings will help students and parents choose institutions and assist universities in creating specialization and development strategies.”
Humanities, social sciences, business and economics
In the humanities, social sciences and business and economics fields, universities that continued to invest in foundational disciplines — despite humanities losing favor over other fields — or innovated in research and education according to societal changes, received high marks.
SNU excelled across key indicators, such as the full-time faculty member ratios, internal research funding and employment rate.
Konkuk University's Seoul Campus was given the "exceptional" rating in humanities by doing research in areas that combined technology and industrial demand, such as mobility humanities. Inha University was also given the "exceptional" rating in humanities for expanding the scope of Korean studies.
In the business and economics discipline, Ewha Womans University was given the "exceptional" ranking thanks to its high graduate employment rate of 72.3 percent, second in the field, and low dropout rate of 1.3 percent, also second in its field.
Engineering and natural sciences
For engineering fields — including electronics and computer engineering; materials and chemical engineering; mechanical and mobility engineering; and construction and systems engineering — factors such as joint international research and technology transfer helped give universities “exceptional” ratings.
Hanyang University's Seoul Campus achieved an "exceptional" rating for all four engineering subjects thanks to its technology transfer revenue. The university earned approximately 39.36 billion won over the past three years, which is around nine times the average of 4.4 billion won for the 67 evaluated universities.
KAIST stood out in the electronics and computer engineering field, having 386 patent citations in papers, which is more than eight times the average of 44. Patent citation is an indicator of actual industrial use.
In natural sciences — referring to subject rankings for mathematics and physics, and life sciences and chemistry — universities with high research quality and long-term investments stood out.
Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology was given an "exceptional" rating for mathematics and physics, being the university with the highest number of international journal citations.
Sungkyunkwan University dominates across fields
Sungkyunkwan University was given the “exceptional” rating in eight out of the nine academic fields. It achieved high marks in research quality indicators and had consistently strong student outcomes in employment and entrepreneurship.
SNU received high marks in engineering and natural sciences subject areas due to its external funding and patent outcomes. However, it scored low for indicators such as papers in the world's top 2 percent, international joint research papers, ratio of graduate school students establishing their own businesses and ratio of students completing field training compared to other universities rated as "exceptional."
Among the national universities outside greater Seoul, Kyungpook National University and Pusan National University earned “excellent” ratings in humanities and business and economics. Chungnam National University received "excellent" ratings for the social sciences and business and economics fields.
Evaluation criteria
The JoongAng University Rankings by Subject was introduced this year, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the JoongAng Ilbo and the 33rd year since the The JoongAng University Rankings began being published.
The JoongAng University Rankings 2025, which assesses universities across education, research, academic environment and reputation, will be announced on Wednesday.
Subject rankings were introduced because it became difficult to reflect a university’s actual competitiveness when research and education became more and more specialized. Universities specializing in specific fields, industrial shifts and each academic discipline having different performance indicators also brought the need to have a rankings that shows which university is strong in which field.
The subject rankings evaluate universities across nine fields: humanities; social sciences; business and economics; electronics and computer engineering; materials and chemical engineering; mechanical and mobility engineering; construction and systems engineering; mathematics and physics; and life sciences and chemistry. The categories are based on the Korean Educational Development Institute’s classifications, while also reflecting how universities organize their departments and colleges.
The academic fields, ranking indicators and weightings were reviewed by an expert advisory committee of academics, researchers and industry specialists nominated by the National Research Foundation of Korea, the Korean Academy of Science and Technology and Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea.
Unlike The JoongAng University Rankings, the subject rankings focus on the actual education and research performance of each academic field. Both the main and subject rankings use common indicators, such as research funding, paper citations and graduate employment rate, while also using other indicators tailored for each field.
For the electronics and computer engineering field, the paper-to-patent citation indicator looks at industrial impact, and the ratio of graduate students establishing technology startups is used for the mechanical and chemical engineering field. The mechanical and mobility engineering field looks at patent and standard essential patent outcomes. The humanities and social sciences are looks at the impact of domestic papers and the ratio of full-time faculty members.
Data from public data sources, such as the Korean Council for University Education's Higher Education in Korea service, Ministry of Science and ICT, Korean Standards Association and academic databases, such as Naver Scholytics and Clarivate were used.
The results were provided to all 67 evaluated universities.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY LEE HOO-YEON, HEO JEONG-WON AND OH SAM-GWON [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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